I know our VBS may have been late in the summer, but I hope this will help someone. We had a snack time in the schedule and each crew made their own snack. The Bible lesson/Bible point were emphasized during this time. Some of the things we did were:

Day 1: Substituted Skittles for M&M's. We also cut down the servings of Skittles, raisins, and licorice to 1/8 cup. I believe I got 28 servings of wheat cereal from a 19 oz. box. We weren't that precise in our measuring; just scooped out 1/4 cup. The raisins and licorice were not a big hit with our crews. That was another reason we cut the serving to 1/8 cup. The limerick in the Chuck Wagon Chow packet was typed on labels and put on each zip top bag of spy mix.

Day 2: We omitted the S'mores all together; we did a scene on a cracker. Each child was given 2 half graham crackers. On one, they spread blue tinted vanilla frosting with a craft stick to cover the whole cracker (this symbolized the Jordan River before it was parted). On the other cracker, it was also spread with blue tinted vanilla frosting; but on this one, they used the craft stick to draw a line down the middle of the frosting to symbolize the parting of the Jordan River. After that was done, they were given 12 mini chocolate chips to place down the "part" to symbolize the 12 stones taken from the river to serve as a memorial. If they were allergic to chocolate, they were given Skittles (just something to give the effect). One child could not have the frosting, so he made the scenes on the crackers and then was given 2 plain graham crackers to eat with Skittles and jelly, if desired. 1 tub of vanilla frosting served 14, and 1 bag of mini chocolate chips was more than enough for 70 servings.

Day 3: We omitted the pepperoni. After reading previous posts of the waste, it was decided not to purchase pepperoni. The children didn't miss it, and the cheese and crackers had the desired outcome. If the children couldn't have cheese, they were served grape jelly.

Day 4: The cherry showed Jesus' blood He shed for us and His love for us. We also had some children who were allergic to ice cream, so the idea of applesauce/graham crackers came in handy.

Day 5: It was Family Night and we did not have the suggested snack. We had a hot dog supper.

This was our first year to use Group VBS and it was awesome. I have never heard so many volunteers looking forward to next year. I think having all age levels together in crews helped.

Also, our testimonials after VBS on Sunday night really showed that using snacks to reinforce the Bible lesson/Bible point truly worked. This was the first time snacks had been used to reinforce the Bible lesson/Bible point. Several crew leaders shared how "playing with their food" helped to reinforce the lesson with their crew. One volunteer who worked in recreation said she could tell whether the crew had been to snacks or not. If they had snacks, they knew the Bible lesson.